Liberty Park Press

Clinton vs. Trump: Maybe The TV Ratings Tell The Story

The Hollywood Reporter on Friday revealed some interesting statistics on the viewing audience disparity between who watched Hillary Rodham Clinton’s acceptance speech and who tuned in for Donald Trump’s speech a week earlier.

It was Trump by more than a million viewers.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Trump’s speech was watched by 34.9 million viewers. Clinton could only muster 33.3 million viewers. According to the popular entertainment news agency:

CNN again led the pack with 7.5 million viewers during the speech’s time period. MSNBC followed 5.3 million viewers, with broadcast sister network NBC News just behind with 4.5 million viewers. (That makes for the eighth night of convention coverage in which the network topped its broadcast competition.) ABC News follows with 3.9 million, with CBS pacing third with 3.7 million. Fox News Channel grabbed 3 million viewers. An additional 1.5 million viewers came from Spanish-language net Univision. PBS channels surged to a convention high, bringing in 3.9 million viewers during Clinton’s speech.”

There was something else in the roundup. CNN, considered to be a magnet for liberals, was ahead of the pack for Democratic National Convention coverage. Fox News, however, was in first place for coverage of the Republican convention. Fox is generally considered a conservative favorite.

When it came time to critique Clinton’s speech, reviews are all over the map. Some called it “historic” and others suggested it was “boilerplate” for the liberal base.

It was when Clinton finally got around to the subject of guns that Second Amendment activists paid attention.

“I’m not here to repeal the 2nd Amendment,” she insisted. “I’m not here to take away your guns.”

But gun rights advocates are inclined to not believe that. They are reminded of her earlier comments about the Supreme Court being wrong on the Second Amendment, and about her unrelenting war on the National Rifle Association, which has now become a broader campaign effort against the “gun lobby.”

They are learning about the expanded language in the Democratic Party’s 2016 Platform about guns that concentrates more on controls and restrictions than on protecting the civil rights of tens of millions of gun owners.

With 33,000 Americans dying every year, Democrats believe that we must finally take sensible action to address gun violence. While responsible gun ownership is part of the fabric of many communities, too many families in America have suffered from gun violence. We can respect the rights of responsible gun owners while keeping our communities safe. To build on the success of the lifesaving Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, we will expand and strengthen background checks and close dangerous loopholes in our current laws; repeal the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA) to revoke the dangerous legal immunity protections gun makers and sellers now enjoy; and keep weapons of war—such as assault weapons and large capacity ammunition magazines (LCAM’s)—off our streets. We will fight back against attempts to make it harder for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives to revoke federal licenses from law breaking gun dealers, and ensure guns do not fall into the hands of terrorists, intimate partner abusers, other violent criminals, and those with severe mental health issues. There is insufficient research on effective gun prevention policies, which is why the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention must have the resources it needs to study gun violence as a public health issue.”

Clinton and Trump are both on the campaign trail, and some predictions suggest that their debate in September may draw a bigger audience than the Super Bowl.

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About Dave Workman

Dave Workman is an award-winning career journalist with an expertise in firearms and the outdoors. He is the author of several books dealing with firearms politics. He has a degree in editorial journalism from the University of Washington and is a lifelong Washington resident.